Sri Lanka’s sovereign bond issue oversubscribed by 2.2 times: Central Bank

Oct 28, 2015 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's Central Bank on behalf of the Government has raised 1,500 million US dollars through a 10-year International Sovereign Bond issue on Tuesday. Final order books stood at 3.3 billion US dollars from 290 investor accounts, achieving an oversubscription ratio of 2.2 times. This marks Sri Lanka’s ninth US Dollar benchmark as well as the largest offering in the international bond market since 2007, the Central Bank said in a statement. The allocation of the Bond was 55 percent for The US, Europe 29 percent and Asia 16 percent. The allocation by investor type was 88 percent for fund managers, banks 9 percent and pension, insurance agencies 3 percent. The Bonds which had a coupon of 6.850 percent per annum rated 'BB-', ‘B1’ and ‘B+' by Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service and Standard and Poor’s respectively. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers and Book runners of this transaction. “The outcome of this Bond issuance shows the continued investor confidence in Sri Lanka, despite the volatility in the international bond market.” the Central Bank said.